MAgic Items as Loot and Effect on Player Wealth

[nwn_deadman]

I understand that when a player characters chooses a magic item as loot that player is considered to have received 1/2 market value of that item as the actual value of the item received.

This is because the player character will have to sell the item at 1/2 market value to get gold for the item.

My thoughts on this are:

A 20th level character will have a total wealth of $760,000 gp.

Now, take into account that magic items are considered to be 1/2 market value and the character could easily have about $1,000,000 gp (market value) of magic items and still have $160,000 gp worth of possessions (Art, Buildings, Pets...whatever)

Has anyone else caught on to this or what?

For instance, creating characters above 1st level.

Why would a new character have to pay full market value for a magic item when a character that obtained that item as part of loot have to pay only 1/2.

Seems to me that in posts here and on other message boards nobody has thought of this.

Thoughts?

 

[Crothian]

I don't think these are hard lined rules persay. Everyone runs their game differently and likes different wealth levels. In the current game I'm in I'm 12th level and have maby 10k worth of equipment. That's a little less then the 88k the DMG says I should have. We have 4 PCs of 12th level in the party and maybe 20k worth of stuff between us all (Ya, I have most of the magic stuff ).

As foir starting at a higher level and figuering out what the character has, as a DM I'd be working hand in hand with the PC on what magic he has. It would not be equal to the current Pcs.

 

[CRGreathouse]

that player is considered to have received 1/2 market value of that item as the actual value of the item received.

This is your own ruling; anything buiilt off this is a result of this change.

 

[Starfox]

In general, PCs bye magic items from their own loot for the same price the group would have gotten selling them; that is 50% off. But that doesn't mean that a PC generated at high starting level gets a 50% discount on hismagic weapons with the premise that "he found them on some adventure". That line works only if you actually played that adventure with this character.

 

[EOL]

The whole weath thing and expected wealth are guidelines and they are going to play differently in every campaign. In the campaign I play in everyone is very casual about who has what and what everyone's relative wealth works out to be. On the other hand the game I run the players have this enormously complicated dare I say anal approach to magic item distribution with a quota and magic item return policy and just about everything else you can imagine. It all depends on what the players are comfortable with.

 

[Darkness]

I understand that when a player characters chooses a magic item as loot that player is considered to have received 1/2 market value of that item as the actual value of the item received.

This is because the player character will have to sell the item at 1/2 market value to get gold for the item.

This is not correct; to figure out a PC's total wealth, you don't halve the value of any item but rather just add up all values.

 

[Geoff Watson]

They may have found 1,000,000 gp of random magic items over their time adventuring, but most of them would be sold or traded to get the items the character wants.

Geoff.

 

[nwn_deadman]

reply

how do you know that this is the incorrect assumption for determining magic item value to find total character wealth?

Can you show me a RULE that says this?

I have stated what I think, don't tell me flat out that I am wrong without supporting it with some rule that says it is.

 

[nwn_deadman]

Re: Re: MAgic Items as Loot and Effect on Player Wealth

This is your own ruling; anything buiilt off this is a result of this change.

You are wrong because the rule for splitting treasure in the DMG (or PHB) states that a character receives 1/2 value for selling magic items and that a character will get credit for 1/2 value when computing what equatible amount of gold the character has received.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Can you show me a RULE that says this?

Check DMG p43.

Under "Equip the character", it says "Refer to Chapter 8 : Magic Items, where all magic items are listed along with their market price".

If that's not good enough for you, then note the example it gives under "Limitations on Magic Items":

"This is a good way to prevent power imbalances such as an 8th-level fighter with hardly a copper to his name who is armed with a nine lives stealer."

An 8th level fighter has 27,000 gp in resources. A nine lives stealer has a market value of 25,315.

Half of that is just over 12,500gp - I wouldn't call 14,500gp resource value remaining "hardly a copper to his name"...

-Hyp.